The Republican journal., 1887-07-07
Letters from Boston.
CORRESPONDENCE of the journal,

enemies of prohibition tell the truth, your in
terest in the cause is dying out and needs re-
kindin., 50 | am going to add one little stick
to tn" fire that shall rouse your bcnmmbcd
| faculties to their active, normal condition
again. You have learned long before this that
the Republicans in the House broke the tenn
pcrancc plank of their party into splinters-
into such tiny atoms that one cannot find
piece even for IL souvenir. l don't know as
one would care to have Il memento Of such
di>reputablc and disgusting disaster; the event
will live in my memory without any visible aid
quite long enough 1t was thought quite prob
able that the upper Hon>e passed the Suhmis-
sion bill expecting and almost knowing what
its fate would be and thereby avoiding all re-
spon>ibility in the affair. For ways that are
dark refer You to the Massachusetts Iewi>a-
turc of 1857. Either brains joined with logic
or common sense are quantities of the past
among Republicans. or else men possessed Of
such ncedfnl mental commodities don't get in
to the House except in very insignificant mum
berS.
If half respectable and Semi-intclgcnt
crowd Of women of the same number couldn't
display more sense and make better points
than was exhibited by thi, august (?) body at
the state House june the Sth, ! should feel
ashamed of the sex. But let me give you Il
few of the IDEAS cXprc>>cd-as we'll as | can
for it is rather difficult to put nothing into
something and make it readable. Darling.
Rep.) of >omcrvc. the Father of the Bill
made several good points as to the propriety,
legality and justice of allowing this question
to be voted upon by th. people. and the great
need of prohibition in the State. Most every
hoiv was satisfied with his plea Il few felt that
he lacked artlor, carnestncsS, and was among
that few. 1t needed the forrcflil ruu,Ience of
Wendell Phillips, or Il WiIbcrforcc; a man
with an intense conviction that the bill was
just and patriotic demand. Darn" seemed to
me Il little unsteady, aS though Il stron. aryli-
mcnt on the opposite side might break him
| down. But it was the best and only 'speech'
made. One man (Rrp.l gave the profound
reason why hc should oppo>. the bill ''l.ca,I~c
| the leaders and petitioners were fanatics and
were never satisfied or grateful. and if we
| Yield now they will continue to make demands"
Another QRep.) said: II oppose this bill be-
cause prohibition don't prohibit. why they
have all the liquor they want down in Mainc!"
The man who did the most harm hy means of
his position as an Orthodox cN-mini>ter, was
Mr. Chas. Smith, ORep) Of Amlnver. The
men who We're turned by such lack of argument
must have been waiting for chance to he
| turned. He said-inasmuch As lie said anyth hing
-"the local option law has furnished Il ful rum
! whcreon to build up Il temperance sentiment
such as we never shall have under con>titu-
| tional prohibition. Temperance agitation will
be il thing of the past if this measure pre-
walls"
| Next speaker wanted to know if all moral
| agitation had ceased since the Decalo@uc was
| delivered to the world on Mt. Sinai: One
| speaker said he opposed the bin hcra,l>c it
would help the prohbtioui>tS. and they Wee
only sincere in their isincerity and should re-
| c"iVc no encouragement.
| As the bill before the House merely asked
| that the question of amendment be submitted to
| the people it seemed very strange to hear so
many argue against prohibition itself. Nobody
| cared what they thought OH that subject. The
| point at issue was, 'ShaIl we let the people be
heard" Only one man after Mr.. Darling made
! the right point by saying, it matters not what
! We think of prohibition; whether we are for
or against it; we certainly must allow the peo-
| pie to express themselves on the subject The
| debate lacked dignity and patriotism in the
| highest sense. When the vote was taken. any
one with eyes and ears could see how close they
| tried to vote anu yet kill the bill-nany being
absent tl3 rep. and dem.l Mr.. Darling pro-
| posed a reconsideration OF the vote without de
| bate. So the matter went over for another
week. The first vote stood ll2 for, to u against
| the second vote was less favorable being l:s1 to
| 113 besides pairs; II republicans either voted
against it or We're absent Although the repub-
| can> lacked > of the necessary two-third> yet
with the few democratic votes they thought
the bill would have gone through safe had they
| been solid for it; had the. been true to their
| pledge which the party adopted ut the state
convention in Sept 1856 in which they agreed
| to submit this question to the people. Was
| this not dodgn%, was this not di>honorabIe in
| the highest degree, was it not very Hnrenuhlir-
| an. to refuse to let the people be heard:
| j. there not Il question that demands love of
country, before love of party, love of country.
| before love Of gold. love of the prrpttuiv of
| the nation before love Of the pcrpruity of par
| ty. When one hears and see, ON every honu
| the destroying influence of the rum traffic.
when one reads so much about the increase in
! the traffic in our country and how slowly but
surely it is ruiring lis. it is time that some
| power should come to the front to rescue u.s.
We are told that as Il civilized nation the drink
| habit is more general here than elsewhere. We
hear that our drink bill is 800 900 900 or more
than that of churches charities, schools an
| fuo, combined. From an authoritative sotr:.r
we learn that the yearly deaths from drink in
every thousand are in England. France and
Ireland =: scotland and Switzerland 3; Swed-
en-. g. AMI New York State alone II. Recently
the ratio Of murders per million have been in
England III. France. 7M;. Germany. S377. Ire
land So, ami i'm tie United States. 24GD OnI,
the hot bloo,lcd. revr,"eful countries Of Sp,in
and Italy exceed Us in murder, to the popl,-
ton. Figures show that in 1850 in ih: L..
s. we hai nearly 1000 prisoners AMI more than
-, 900 in 1880 with Il constantly increasing ratio
for each ntervenin" decade"
THAT is to sav i'm 1850 one in every 5000 WA,
in prison while in 1850 one in S:57 was in pri>-
on.''
In Massacln.rtl. by the c.n>us of lsS5 there
was one prisoner in every 57,, popuiaion and
in suffolk county one prisoner to every 27S
popuation. We aIl know Tie relation the ruln
tr.lilic bears to the criminal question: With
saloons in this city, both licensed am; unlicen,-
ed TO the number of over 1 800 what wonder
that old Massachusetts is losing prestige aS a
moral vantage ~rouud. One saloon TO every
80 men, How can one be Indifferent with ,;,,h
facts starjp" them in the face, and after r,cciv-
iny the warnin" of such a man aS Canon Will
| berforc, who said in hi, lecture Delivered but
n short time 400 in fremont 'Temple: >: ~ can see
what Won don't ,cc. i can see this cur,rd traf-
fr spreading ont all over your urcat country.
Threatening, obstruction TO your uoh,. iustit,,-
tinns unless snmethin.r i, ionr NJ once Enr